Rapper Fetty Wap pleads guilty in drug-trafficking case

Rapper Fetty Wap has admitted to his role in a multimillion-dollar drug trafficking ring, pleading guilty in Long Island Federal Court Monday in exchange for a minimum five years in federal prison.

The platinum-selling rapper, born William Junior Maxwell II, could have faced life in prison after he was charged last October for conspiring to bring more than 100 kilos of heroin, fentanyl and cocaine from the West Coast to the East for sale in New Jersey and Long Island

As part of his deal, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute and possess cocaine, but not the other drugs.

He remains locked up after taking the plea deal since his bond was revoked earlier this month.

Federal authorities labeled him “a kilogram-level redistributor for the trafficking organization,” which sold drugs between June 2019 and June 2020 — long after his rise to stardom. Five other suspects were also charged in the conspiracy.

On Aug. 8, Long Island Federal Magistrate Judge Steven Locke ordered Fetty Wap’s $500,000 bond revoked after the rapper waved what looked like a gun during a Dec. 11 FaceTime call and told a man, “Imma kill you and everybody you with,” according to court filings.

He’s been held in the special housing unit at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn since then, his lawyer, Elizabeth Macedonio, said, adding she doesn’t know why he is in solitary confinement.

“They won’t tell me,” she told the Daily News. “He’s a pretty well-put-together individual but it’s taxing.”

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She wouldn’t comment on his guilty plea Monday.

Fetty Wap and his accomplices got their narcotics on the West Coast and used the mail, along with drivers who had hidden compartments in their vehicles, to bring the drugs to Suffolk County, where they were stored, federal prosecutors say.

Authorities conducted a series of search warrants as they busted the drug ring and found about $1.5 million in cash, 16 kilograms of cocaine, two kilograms of heroin, several fentanyl pills, two 9-mm handguns, a rifle, a .45 caliber pistol, a .40 caliber pistol and ammunition, prosecutors said.

Fetty Wap’s hit song “Trap Queen” landed in the Top 20 of Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart in its third week of release and a remix crossed over into the Top Ten of the Billboard Hot 100. The lyrics make reference to getting rich from drug dealing, including the lines, “We just set a goal, talking matching Lambos / At 56 a gram, five a hundred grams, though.”

He put up his Georgia home as part of his bail package and was required to wear an ankle monitor but was allowed to travel on tour as long as he got permission from federal prosecutors.

Two of his co-defendants, Anthony Cyntje, who worked as a New Jersey corrections officer, and Robert Leonardi, pleaded guilty in June. Leonardi, his brother Anthony Leonardi and the other two alleged co-conspirators, Brian Sullivan and Kavaughn Wiggins, were responsible for getting the drugs from coast to coast, the feds alleged.

Fetty Wap’s sentencing date has not yet been set.